Sound translating apparatus



July 2, 1968 c. w. HELM SOUND TRANSLATING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 8, 1965 INVENTOR CHARLES w. HELM 7 ATTORNEY FIG.2

July 2, 1968 Filed Feb. 8. 1965 Flea c. w. HELM 3,390,885

SOUND TRANSLAT ING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 r.ili

mvzmox CHARLES w. HELM.

United States Patent 3,390,885 SOUND TRANSLATING APPARATUS Charles W. Helm, Rocky Hill, (:111., assignor to The Gray Manufacturing Company, a corporation of Connecticut Filed Feb. 8, 1965, Ser. No. 431,134 12 Claims. (Cl. 274-21) ABSTRACT 0F THE DISCLOSURE A back-spacing mechanism for sound translating apparatus of the type employing continuous belt record media wherein a carriage member which supports a sound transducer is caused to scan the moving record medium in a first direction under the influence of a lead screw and wherein the operative connection between the carriage and lead screw may be interrupted and the carriage stepped in the opposite direction by means of pivoting a yoke mounted on the carriage member so as to interrupt the driving connection between the lead screw and carriage and to cause a driving element to momentarily engage the lead screw and urge the carriage in the said opposite direction.

This invention relates to sound translating apparatus and particularly to a backspacing mechanism whereby movement of a sound translating head relative to a record medium in a backspacing direction is effected in conjunction with the same lead screw that produces movements of the head in a recording or reproducing direction.

Such a backspacing arrangement achieves far greater accuracy than has been available previously in this field by virtue of the fact that the same lead screw is employed for backspacing as is used for forward spacing or forward feed.

It is among the objects of the present invention to provide sound translating apparatus comprising relatively movable frame and carriage members, one of the members providing a support for a record medium, the other of the members supporting a sound transducer, a lead screw rotatably supported on the frame member, a toothed element movably supported on the carriage member normally engaged with the lead screw, a driving element movably supported on the carriage member normally disengaged from the lead screw, and actuating means mounted on the carriage member including retracting means for the toothed element and advancing means for the driving element, for sequentially disengaging the toothed element from the lead screw and engaging the driving element with the lead screw to impart movement to the carriage member.

Biasing means are preferably employed to urge the toothed element towards the lead screw and the driving element away from the lead screw. The actuating means preferably includes an electromagnet. The toothed element may be pivotally supported on the carriage and latch means may be employed for normally preventing disengagement of the toothed element from the lead screw. An electromagnet on the carriage member may effect release of the latch means and retraction of the toothed element from the lead screw. The actuating means may include a manually actuated mechanism for releasing the latch means and retracting the toothed element from the lead screw. A yoke may be included pivotally supporting the toothed element with respect to the carriage, together with a first latch member movably mounted on the yoke, a second latch member on the carriage normally engaging the first latch member to prevent disengagement of the toothed element from the lead screw, and electromagnetic means for disengaging the first latch member from the second latch member. A yoke may be included for pivotally supporting the toothed element with respect to the carriage, together with a first latch member mounted on the yoke, a second latch member movably mounted on the carriage normally engaging the first latch member to prevent disengagement of the toothed element from the lead screw, and manually actuated means on the carriage for disengaging the first latch member from the second latch member.

It is also among the objects of the present invention to provide sound translating apparatus comprising relatively movable frame and carriage members, the frame member providing a support for a record medium, the carriage member supporting a sound transducer for movement in a path to scan the record medium, a lead screw rotatably supported on the frame member, means for rotating the lead screw, a yoke pivotally mounted on the carriage member, a toothed element carried by the yoke for engagement with the lead screw, a spring biasing the toothed element towards the lead screw, latch means normally engaged to maintain the toothed element in mesh with the lead screw, a pawl pivotally mounted on the carriage for engagement with the lead screw, a spring biasing the pawl out of engagement with the lead screw, and actuating means on the carriage for sequentially disengaging the latch means, retracting the toothed element from engagement with the lead screw and advancing the pawl into engagement with the lead screw to impart step-- wise movement to the carriage member. The actuating means preferably assumes the form of an electromagnet 0n the carriage together with a manually operable member. Actuation of the pawl preferably imparts movement to the carriage in a direction opposite from that imparted thereto by rotation of the lead screw in mesh with the toothed element.

It is also among the objects of this invention to provide sound translating apparatus comprising a frame adapted to receive a record medium, a lead screw rotatably mounted in the frame, means for rotating the lead screw, a carriage slidably mounted in the frame, a sound transducer supported on the carriage to scan a record medium on the frame, a first element normally engaging the lead screw to impart movement to the carriage, a second element normally disengaged from the lead screw but engageable therewith to impart movement to the carriage, and operating means on the carriage for sequentially disengaging the first element and engaging the second element relative to the lead screw. The operating means preferably includes an electromagnet and a hand operated member.

A more complete understanding of the invention will follow from a description of the accompanying drawings wherein: I

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of sound translating apparatus incorporating the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of sound translating apparatus like that shown in FIG. 1 with the cover removed and with certain other components removed for purposes of clarity;

FIG. 3 is an elevation of a portion of the carriage mechanism looking from the rear of the machine;

FIG. 4 is an elevation of a fragmentary portion of the mechanism look-ing from the front of the machine;

FIG. 5 is an elevation on a somewhat enlarged scale of the latching arrangement shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an elevation of a portion of the mechanism as it would appear looking from the left end of the machine as depicted in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a portion of the mechanism, with certain parts removed looking from the top of the machine.

The sound translating apparatus depicted in the drawings employs a medium in belt form. Mounted on the base plate or frame there is a housing or cover member 22 containing an opening 24 in its left end as viewed in FIG. 1 from which a belt loading tray 26 can be retracted by means of its handle 28 to receive a belt type record medium, whereupon the tray 26 will be moved inwardly during which the medium will be applied to the forward mandrel 30 and the rear mandrel 32. Before retracting the tray 26, a lever 34 exposed through the upper portion of the cover 22 will be rocked about its pivot to reduce the distance between the mandrels 30- and 32 to facilitate application and removal of belt media with respect to the mandrels, and this same pivotal movement of the lever 34 serves to retract the transducer head with respect to the path of the belt media during application and removal of such media with respect to the mandrels. Conversely, after the medium has been applied to the mandrels and the tray 26 has been moved to its innermost position as depicted in FIG. 1, the lever 34 will be rocked to its position depicted in FIG. 1 to separate the mand-rels 30 and 32 sufficiently to produce proper tension in the belt medium and at the same time, the transducer head will be moved towards the path of the medium to its proper transducing position.

The transducing head, not shown in FIG. 1 is supported on a carriage 36, a portion of which extends forwardly from the front panel of the machine. The carriage is provided with a handle 38 which can be manually operated to shift the carriage by depressing a pivoted actuator 40. The carriage supports a marking assembly 42 and an indicating assembly 44 on opposite sides of a support 46 adapted to receive an index strip, not shown, which can be marked and interpreted in accordance with the actual intelligence carried by the record medium.

Accessible on the front panel are a tuning knob 48 for precise positioning of the transducer in relation with a recorded track on the medium, a playback tone control knob 50 with a volume control knob 52, a multiposition selector knob 54 for any of a plurality of input signals, mainly voice signals appearing either at different levels or from different transducers permanently connected to the recorder.

The carriage 36 is supported on a lower guide rod 56, shown in FIG. 1 and an upper guide rod 58 shown in FIG. 2. These guide rods are supported in a pedestal 60 at the left end of the machine as shown in FIG. 2 and an intermediate pedestal 6-2 secured to the frame 20. Journaled in these pedestals is a lead screw 64 employed to impart both feeding and back-spacing movements to the carriage 36, in a manner to be described, so as to cause the transducer 66 to move in a direction axially of the mandrels and of the belt medium when supported on the mandrels. The transducer 66 is carried by an arm 68 capable of rocking movement about a pivot 70 by which the transducer assembly is supported on the carriage. A follower 72 secured to the arm 68 projects beneath an elongated cam 74 which is substantially coextensive with the mandrel 3d and which is actuated by the lever 34 which carries a pin 76 received in a slotted arm 78 secured to the right end of the elongated cam 74 as vi wed in FIG. 2.

The lever 34 is connected by means of a link 80 with a support 82 for the rear drum 32 so as to rock the support 82 about a pivot carried by the frame 20 whereby the spacing between the mandrels 30 and 32 will be varied to permit application and removal of the sleeve media.

The tray 26 has a bottom wall 84 containing a slot 86 receiving a guide 88 containing slots 90 which receive screws 92 on which the guide or rail 80 can slide. When the tray 26 is retracted, movement will be imparted to the tray itself as well as to the guide 88 to assure adequate support of the tray over a substantial 4 portion of its length even when it is fully retracted. Intermediate bridges 94 are provided on the tray to suitably reinforce it. The tray provides an outboard abutment 96 and an inboard abutment 98 for properly locating a belt medium by engaging its ends.

The forward mandrel 30 carries an enlarged friction disc 19!), in driving engagement with a suitable reducing train driven by a motor 102. The rear mandrel 32 is an idler and is rotated by its frictional engagement with a sleeve medium applied thereto. The motor 102 also, through suitable gearing, drives the lead screw 64.

As will appear from FIGS. 2 and 3, an electromagnet 104 is supported on the carriage 36 by means of a frame 106 and has its coil connected in a suitable fashion with a source of current so as to actuate its armature 108 carrying a pair of arms 110 depicted in FIG. 3 and 112 depicted in FIG. 4. A yoke or cradle 114, depicted in FIG. 4 is mounted by a pivot 116 to a portion of the carriage 36 and supports in a non-rotatable fashion a half-nut or toothed element 118 for normal engagement with the lead screw 64'. The half-nut or toothed element 118 is normally biased into engagement with the lead screw 64 by means of a coil spring 120 having one end received in an opening 122 of a latching arm 124 and its other end connected to a pin 126 provided on the carriage. The latching arm 124 is carried on a pivot 128 on an arm 130 projecting upwardly from the yoke 114. As best shown in FIG. 5, a lug 132 is struck up from the arm 130 and projects through a relatively large opening 134 in the latching arrn 124. The upper end of the arm 130 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 is provided with a horizontal extension 136 serving as an abutment for the arm 112 of the electromagnet armature. With the yoke or cradle 114 in the position depicted in FIGS. 4 and 5, the half-nut or toothed element 118 will be held in engagement with the lead screw 64 so that rotation of the lead screw will impart movement to the carriage in one direction to cause the transducer to scan the sleeve medium mounted on the mandrels.

The arm 11% of the electromagnet armature shown in 'FIG. 3 serves to actuate a pawl 138 having a tooth 140 capable of engaging the thread of the lead screw 64 to effect a backspacing operation. The pawl 1'38 is mounted on a pivot 142 carried by an arm 144 which is in turn attached to the carriage 36 by means of a pivot 146. The arm 144 carries a pin 148' to receive the end of a spring 150 whose other end is received by a pin 152 on the carriage. Another spring 154 biases the pawl 13 8 in a clockwise direction about the pivot 142 as viewed in FIG. 3 and the spring 150 biases the arm 144 in a clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 3. Accordingly, with the armature arm 110- in its elevated position as shown in this view, the tooth 140 of the pawl will be out of engagement with the lead screw 64.

Inasmuch as it is necessary to disengage the half-nut or toothed element 118 from the lead screw before effecting a backspacing movement, the pawl 138 will be advanced only after the half-nut has been retracted. When the electromagnet 104 is energized, its arm 112 will be depressed against the horizontal extension '136 of the latching arm 124 causing it to rotate about its pivot 128 with respect to the yoke arm 130 until the left edge of the opening 134 engages the lug 132, whereupon continued movement of the arm 1 12 imparts movement to the yoke 114 about its pivot 116, since by this time, the latching arm 124 has moved completely from the upper surface 156 of the cam 158 supported by a pivot 160. Thus the yoke 114 will retract the toothed element 118 from engagement with the lead screw. As this action takes place, the arm 11d of the electromagnet has begun to depress the pawl 138 and its pivoted arm 144 to effect engagement of the tooth 146 with the thread of the lead screw 64 so that a complete stroke of the pawl will move the carriage in a backspace direction a distance corresponding to the pitch of the thread of the lead screw.

The base 162 of the frame 106 supporting the electromagnet serves as an abutment for the end 164 of the pawl 138 which is remote-from its toothed end. Accordingly, when the arm 1-10 of the electromagnet armature is depressed, at very rapid movement will be imparted to the tip of the pawl to produce an initial engagement with the lead screw whereupon the pawl as an entirety will move downwardly to effect the stepping movement. Thus, the distance between the tooth of the pawl and its pivot 142 will be increased for the stepping motion, producing movement by a toggle effect of the pawl 138 and its arm 144 moving pivotally with respect to one another about the pivot 142. As will be evident from FIG. 3, the force applied to the pawl will occur in line with the pivot 142.

The carriage can also be shifted manually in a rapid fashion by operation of the pivoted actuator 40 to rotate the cam 158 about its pivot 160 in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 5 so as to move the upper surface 156 of this cam or latching member from beneath the latching arm or member 124 so that when further movement of the cam 158 engages a downwardly depending arm 166 carried by the yoke 114, the half-nut or toothed element .118 will be retracted from engagement with the lead screw permitting the carriage to be shifted along its guide rods 56 and 5 8 to any desired position relative to the mandrels and a record medium supported thereby.

Whereas the foregoing invention has been described as applied to a specific embodiment, it will be recognized by those skilled in the art that the concept is applicable to a wide variety of sound translating machines.

I claim:

1. Sound translating apparatus comprising relatively movable frame and carriage members, said frame member providing support for a record medium, said carriage member supporting a sound transducer, a lead screw rotatably supported on said frame member, yoke means pivotally mounted on said carriage member, a toothed element mounted on said yoke means and normally engaged with a plurality of threads on said lead screw whereby rotation of said lead screw will cause movement of said carriage member so that said sound transducer may scan said record medium, latch means movably mounted on said yoke means and normally preventing pivoting thereof to thereby prevent disengagement of said toothed element from said lead screw, a driving element movably sup- .ported on said carriage and normally disengaged from said lead screw, and actuating means mounted on said carriage for operating said latch means and said driving element whereby energization of said actuating means will cause pivoting of said yoke means relative to said carriage to disengage said toothed member from said lead screw and the sequential engagement of said driving element with said lead screw to impart movement to said carriage in a backspacing direction.

2. The sound translating apparatus of claim 1 further comprising means normally biasing said driving element away from said lead screw.

3. The sound translating apparatus of claim 1 wherein said toothed element comprises a half nut and wherein said actuating means includes an electromagnet on said carriage for releasing said latch means and retracting said half nut from said lead screw.

4. The sound translating apparatus of claim '3 further comprising a manually actuated mechanism for releasing said latch means and retracting said toothed element from said lead screw.

5. The sound translating apparatus of claim 1 where in said latch means comprises a first latch member movably mounted on said yoke, and a second latch member mounted on said carriage and normally engaging said first latch member to prevent disengagement of said toothed element from said lead screw.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said actuating means comprises electromagnetic means operatively connected to said first latch member for disengaging said first latch member from said second latch member.

7. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said manually actuated mechanism comprises manually actuated means moutned on said carriage and operatively connected to said first latch member for disengaging said first latch member from said second latch member.

8. Sound translating apparatus comprising relatively movable frame and carriage members, said frame member providing a support for a record medium, said carriage member supporting a sound transducer for movement in a path to scan said record medium, a lead screw rotatably supported on said frame member, means for rotating said lead screw, a yoke pivotally mounted on said carriage member, a toothed element carried by said yoke for engagement with said lead screw, latch means pivotally mounted on said yoke for normally maintaining said toothed element in mesh with a plurality of threads on said lead screw, a pawl pivotally mounted on said carriage for engagement with said lead screw, a spring biasing said pawl out of engagement with said lead screw, and actuating means on said carriage and engaging said latch means for preventing disengagement of said toothed element from said lead screw when said actuating means is deenergized and for sequentially disengaging said latch means, retracting said toothed element from engagement with said lead screw, and advancing said pawl into engagement with said lead screw to impart step-wise movement to said carriage member.

9. Sound translating apparatus according to claim 8 wherein said actuating means is an electromagnet on said carriage.

10. Sound translating apparatus according to claim 8 wherein said actuating means is a manually operable member.

11. Sound translating apparatus according to claim 8 wherein said actuating means includes independently operative electromagnetic and manual actuators for effectin=g said stepwise movement.

12. Sound translating apparatus according to claim 8 wherein actuation of said pawl imparts movement to said carriage in a direction opposite from that imparted thereto by rotation of said lead screw in mesh with said toothed element.

References Cited W. L. Dollenmeyer: Backspacing Mechanism, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 7, No. 6, Nov. 1964, Class 197-91.

B. F. Wehmer: Backspacing Mechanism, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 6, No. 4, Sept. 1963, Class 197-91.

LEONARD FORMAN, Primary Examiner.

FELIX I. DAMBROSIO, Assistant Examiner. 

